Dear Jew in the City, How and why did the Yiddish language come to be? Best, Liza   Dear Liza, Thanks for your question. A few months ago, we discussed Ladino (“Judeo-Spanish”), so I guess it’s only fair that we discuss its Ashkenazic counterpart. The Yiddish language is over a thousand years old. Literally meaning “Jewish,” […]

When a scion from a famous family of Yiddish scholars came on board to help Duolingo with its first Yiddish course, she realized that the academic version with which she grew up was not the same language used by 500,000 speakers worldwide today. That led to a collaboration with Hasidic Jews, who partnered with her […]